Trevon Blondet/Bronx Documentary Center
One day nine years ago, Abrourazakou Bawa, a truck
driver originally from Togo, was in his home borough of the Bronx
when he noticed a disappointed kid walking with a soccer ball under
his arm.
“Where
are you going?” Bawa asked the boy.
“I
couldn’t find anyone to play with,” said the young footballer,
who had hoped to find a pickup game at the public park next to Yankee
Stadium.
That
simple incident led Bawa, then 43, to brainstorm: Why not start a
soccer team for the many African kids who live around the
neighborhood? It would ease their adjustment to the United States,
and might keep them out of trouble.
Originally dubbed the African Diaspora Youth Sports Club, that team is now called the United Africa Football Club —a multilingual group that has won seven annual soccer tournaments organized by the Immigrant Outreach Unit of the New York City Police Department’s Community Affairs Bureau. The NYPD started the tournaments to strengthen relationships between police officers and the city’s new immigrant teenagers, aged 14 to 19 years old, and to reduce their chances of getting involved in crime and drug use.
Bawa,
an independent volunteer, represents the police on game day, coaching
from the sidelines in an NYPD jersey. His team is open to kids from
all 54 African countries, with players hailing from Ghana, Gambia,
Nigeria and more; a new addition is a teen of African descent from
Honduras. On the field, English, French, Twi, Hausa and Ewe are just
some of the languages spoken as players pass the ball back and forth.
Bawa coaches them in English, as well as soccer.
Trevon Blondet/Bronx Documentary Center
He
wants players to accept one another for their character instead of
their religion or ethnicity. The teammates give each other a hard
time in person, or over a WhatsApp group chat, if one doesn’t show
up for practice. If a player is caught fighting on the field or
around the neighborhood, he’s not allowed to play again until his
parents call Bawa to say he has apologized.
“It’s
just like family,” said Yaya Issa Yaya, 18, one of the team’s two
captains who moved to the United States from Accra, Ghana, in 2013.
Now a senior, Yaya likes math and science, and he helps his teammates
with homework. “Our coach devotes all his time and sweat in making
it possible for us to play, so we ought to do our best and make him
proud.”
Yaya
is passionate about soccer. Since he lives next to the Crotona Park
soccer field, he practices several times a week with his younger
brother, even in the winter, when the lights stay on until 7:30 p.m.
But
he eventually wants to leave the Bronx.
“The
streets are not safe,” he said. “Anyone here can get into trouble
without looking for it.”
Keeping
young people out of trouble was one of Bawa’s motivations for
originally starting the soccer club.He
lives in Claremont Village, a sprawling cluster of public-housing
complexes in the South Bronx that’s home to approximately 11,000
residents. He has a lot of friends there, and once campaigned
unsuccessfully to be a judicial delegate, knocking on people’s
doors for votes. The most common complaint he heard from his
neighbors is that the city’s housing authority doesn’t keep up
with maintenance. Bawa says there’s a good sense of community.
“I
never had problems,” he said. “Anybody, they see you, they say
hi.”
During
his decade in the Bronx, Bawa’s lived around many unsupervised
young people who’ve been affected by crime. In 2009, there had been
15 murders and 303 felony assault offenses within the one square mile
of the 42nd
Precinct,
where he and the majority of his future players lived. Some of his
friends had been mugged on the way to their mosque.
Trevon Blondet/Bronx Documentary Center
Bawa,
a father of three, sees
soccer as one way to keep the neighborhood’s young residents away
from trouble. He
pays for the team’s gear out-of-pocket, and drives them
to
and from events in his nine-person sport utility vehicle.
“Let
them smile,” Bawa said of his players. “That’s my payment.”
The
coach borrows nets from other teams for games and his players wear
used jerseys, which he collects and washes. Bawa has collected
donations to pay the entry fees for tournaments from nearby
restaurants, residents and Bronx-Lebanon Hospital. The team plays at
various Bronx fields, but don’t have permits, so if another team
arrives with a permit in hand, Bawa and his players have to pack up
their things.
“We
don’t have much,” Bawa said. “But I don’t care…My priority
is not to win. My priority is to bring those kids together.”
Bawa
admits he has little knowledge of soccer. To learn more, he watches
YouTube videos and takes pointers from advanced players and volunteer
assistant coaches.
“I’m
trying my best,” he said.
Regardless
of his inexperience, his players say he’s an effective coach
because he’s a good motivator and helps them focus on the field.
Despite
the team’s trophies and medals on display in Bawa’s apartment,
the United Africa Football Club has a problem with defense. Several
times a game, Bawa’s defenders, eager to score, run forward. They
forget their duty to support the goalie.
“Yo,”
goalie Kelvin Akisi, 18, from Ghana, shouted at his teammates during
a match versus Bowne Football Club in the summer of 2018. “They got
three men up top, and I got only one defender.”
Ghanaian
pop music played at full volume from a Bluetooth speaker on the
sidelines. Akisi shouted orders at his distant teammates in Twi.
Moments later, he dove for the ball as two unopposed strikers rushed
the goal at full speed. The ball bounced out of Akisi’s gloves into
his opponent’s cleats. The forward passed the ball to his teammate,
who kicked it in for a goal.
“Not
everyone can score,” assistant coach Jeremiah Abdul shouted in
anger at his ineffective defenders. That day, the game ended in a
tie. Bawa again realized the kids have a lot to learn.
“Just
pass the ball,” Bawa repeats every practice. “Don’t be
selfish.”
The post Africans in the Bronx Find Family on the Soccer Field appeared first on City Limits.
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